Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to physical merchant locations, and more particularly to a customer shopping help system for physical merchant locations.
Related Art
More and more consumers are purchasing items and services over electronic networks such as, for example, the Internet. Consumers routinely purchase products and services from merchants and individuals alike. The transactions may take place directly between a conventional or on-line merchant or retailer and the consumer, and payment is typically made by entering credit card or other financial information. Transactions may also take place with the aid of an on-line or mobile payment service provider such as, for example, PayPal, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. Such payment service providers can make transactions easier and safer for the parties involved. Purchasing with the assistance of a payment service provider from the convenience of virtually anywhere using a mobile device is one main reason why on-line and mobile purchases are growing very quickly.
Some payment service providers provide online and mobile payment services for merchants with physical merchant locations and their customers. For example, payment service providers may provide the online and/or mobile payment services discussed above, and in the course of doing so, collect data about customer payment habits with the merchants. However, such data is limited to transactions conducted between customers and merchants, and thus any attempt to analyze that data for assisting the customer in making purchases is limited to data collected from purchases by that customer from that merchant or other merchants.
Thus, there is a need for an improved customer shopping help system.
Embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages are best understood by referring to the detailed description that follows. It should be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identify like elements illustrated in one or more of the figures, wherein showings therein are for purposes of illustrating embodiments of the present disclosure and not for purposes of limiting the same.